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What Are You People, On Dope?

Fast Times at Ridgemont High is the film Roger Ebert dismissed as a "scuz-pit of a movie," which is kinda shocking considering his fondness for writer Cameron Crowe's later projects. Was it all the sex and implied sex that set Ebert's tongue clucking? Crowe based his characters on students he profiled while Crowe was undercover as a student himself at Clairemont High School, and the result is a pair of teenage girls (Phoebe Cates and Jennifer Jason Leigh) who talk a great deal about all the sex they're having (or trying to have), an earnest good kid and hard worker (Judge Reinhold) and the iconic surfer-dude of a generation in Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn). Still funny and, even more surprisingly, still an accurate picture of high school as experienced by high schoolers, Crowe's Fast Times at Ridgemont High has surpassed its '80s origins and continues to speak to the young and horny. The Webster Film Series presents Fast Times at Ridgemont High at 8 p.m. at Schlafly Bottleworks (7260 Southwest Avenue, Maplewood; 314-241-2337 or www.schlafly.com) as this month's Strange Brew film. Tickets are $4. Don't be tardy — Mr. Hand can't forgive tardiness.
Wed., May 6, 2009